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Round 1 Waikato Interclub Series

This past Sunday, 6th May the first round of the new Interclub series was held at our club. 26 archers enjoyed two 20 target courses. Luckily the weather was fine and so we were able to use the bush course, which proved a fun round in the morning, and some interesting scores. After a well deserved lunch of burgers, sausages and chocolate, everyone headed out to shoot the new 3d targets.

There were quite a few young archers for which this was their first tournament, so well done to them all for the great scores, and nice to see a mix of traditional and compound bows .

Well done to Nigel T and Nigel K coming first and second respectively in recurve, and Cameron Judson first in junior recurve and Erik Stenklev-Gussey second in cubs with a margin of only 6 points.

I am looking forward to being able to shoot the next round in Tirau next month.

Karen

Next Club Shoot

Next club shoot will be Sunday 27th May, 10am start.

The club will be holding shoots every two weeks as a trial this year .

AS you'll asked for it,lets make it happen.

Don't forget to byo your meat for BBQ.

AGM 2012

The AGM and Club Shoot was held this past weekend, 29th April. Minutes will be available at the next club shoot on the 13th May.

2012 Committee

At the AGM the following people were voted in as officers and onto the committee. These are the people that keep the club going. Feel free to contact them if you have any issues/queries.

President: Nigel Thompson

Vice President: Niels Stenkley-Gussey

Secretary: Karen Batchelor

Treasurer: Nigel Knott

Huntsmaster: Chris King

Committee: Phil Dickey, Hecter Corrigall, Jerone de Bruin

April 2012

We have the new Containter

We now have a refurbished 20ft container so we can store our valuble targets in to stop them getting damaged. The next project will be building the shelving, which will be done when a new grant or sponsorship has been obtained.

Round Fees/Sign in Book

Just a reminder that each time you shoot at the club there are a couple of things you need to do. First of all, in the club house is a sign in book. Can you please fill this in when shooting at the club (apart from the monthly club shoots). This helps us keep track of who is at the club and means that if someone else comes up to the club they can easily see who else is there and what course they are using-a great safety aspect!

Also, every time you shoot at the club can you please remember to pay the shoot fee ($5 for club members, $10 for non members). This fee helps us keep the targets in good shape and helps with upkeep of the Club. If you would prefer to pay for an annual pass rather then paying for each time you shoot, see the info below re membership. If you aren't sure where the honesty box is then just give us a yell and we can give you directions.

Membership

Membership renewal is due at the end of March. Membership forms will be sent out this week. The updated form is here, so feel free to print it off and send it in. If you shoot at the club a lot it is worth noting the Annual Pass. This is an additional $65 on top of the yearly membership fee. This pass entitles the bearer to unlimited shoots at the club (excluding competitions) without having to pay the $5 shoot fee each time.

Club Hunts

If any one wants to organise a club hunt please contact me so I can put it on the website.

If you wish to go contact me on the clubs email

cheers Nigel

Congrats to Owen.

A big congratulations to Owen, who recently won some well deserved prizes at the annual Bowhunter's Society competition.

He won best red deer head, 2nd for a sika head, as well as 2nd for number of deer taken over the year.

Congratulations on your hard work Owen.

Getting Started with Hunting Chris King (FCA Hunts Master)

As we (FCA) have a number of fledgling bow hunters coming along, I thought that I’d jot down a few of the things that I’ve found along the way. Please remember as (or if) you read this, that I am not an expert, and that these are my own, personal, views.

Firstly equipment – bows – I doubt if any of the reputable manufacturers have a “bad” bow on their range, they wouldn’t be in business if they had, so whichever bow you feel most comfortable with is the one to use. However, to hunt big game on public land, you will have to be pulling a minimum of 45 lb. as that is stipulated on the hunting permit, and a number of private blocks are also using that as a guideline.

Arrows, again personal preference. You have to balance the speed of carbon arrows, which gives you a little more lee way in distance judgement, with the momentum and punch, but greater “drop” of the heavier alloys.

New ruling from DOC minimum arrow weight 500gn,32gram

Arrows:28" length,69cm.

Broadheads 1" or 25mm cutting diameter

Rests – whatever works for you. I’ve gone with a drop away rest, as this automatically centres the arrow as you get to full draw. No need to check that it’s sitting on the rest, it can do nothing else. It can have the possibility of getting damaged if you struggle through thick bush, but you’d have to give it a fairly hefty knock to break anything.

Broadheads, now this is where there may be some divergence of opinion.

I shot mechanical heads for a couple of years, and collected my first deer with them. However, I found that when shooting animals that had thick, woolly, coats they did not penetrate, I actually shot a wild merino ram, and had the arrow bounce off! The ram was thrown off its feet by the hit, then got up and ran away, and the person I was hunting with, who was watching through bino’s actually saw the arrow bounce off. The only reason that we could find was that the thick coat prevented the mechanical from opening. Also had penetration problems shooting Angora type goats, it could well be that using an alloy shaft, with the heavier weight, and slower speed over the fast lightweight carbons that I was using, would have given the head a better chance. After that I changed to Thunderheads, and had no more problems – well, not that problem anyway.

Sights – Most people hunt with multi pin sights, as I also used to do, but after missing a shot (actually two shots) because in the heat of the moment I used the wrong pin – judged the distance correctly, but used the wrong pin – I’ve gone to a single pin on an adjustable sight. I set this at 30 yards, and leave it there when hunting. If an animal is closer I aim a fraction low, only needs to be an inch low to be on the button, and if it’s 40 yards I aim 2 inches high, as I’ve previously checked the differences from the 30 yd setting. I don’t like to take any shots longer than 40 yds, but, if I needed to do that, I’d use a rangefinder to get the actual distance (and if you’re over 40 yds away there should be chance to do that) and my calibrated sight scale has been checked out to 80 yds not that I can remember ever taking a shot at anything over 40 yds.

Most importantly, hunt safely, positively identify your target, don’t just throw an arrow at it, get within your comfortable shooting range, aim at the exact spot you want your arrow to hit, and make sure that spot will give you a clean kill. Any doubts, don’t shoot. The FCA Hunting Rules have been up-dated by Jill, so give them a good read, they’re there to help you.

Have a great time out there, and please return a game claim for anything you harvest.